Guns N’ Roses’ Matt Sorum: I Used to Smuggle Pounds of Cocaine Across Borders

Former Guns N’ Roses / Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum dropped a bombshell recently on the 2 Hours with Matt Pinfield podcast. Sorum revealed he used to be a drug smuggler before his rock star days, taking cocaine across borders by strapping pounds of the powder around his waist.

It’s the perfect time for Sorum to be opening up about his past, as the drummer is currently writing his autobiography. Having written an estimated “thousand pages” so far, Sorum is promising big things for the book, calling it “the juiciest of the juiciest of the GN’R books.”

However, his time before GN’R may make for the most interesting chapters, as Sorum will recall his drug smuggling days. “Before I was in a rock band, I was a drug smuggler. I used to smuggle cocaine across borders. I’d fly on airplanes with two kilos strapped around my waist,” Sorum says. “Most of my deliveries were in Hawaii, because I had a big connection there. I thought about the title ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Smuggler.’ Imagine the movie ‘Blow’, and then think about coming up in rock ‘n’ roll, before I got into bands that I was in. My way to pay my way was smuggling, and that’s what I did. A lot of the book, there’s probably going to be at least a chapter or two on my drug-dealing days.”

He continues, “The last time I smuggled two kilos to Hawaii, I remember thinking I was being followed, and it wasn’t because I was paranoid on cocaine — I really felt that I was being followed. So, I told the guy that flew this stuff for — I was the mule, and I got, like, a couple grand every time I went — ‘I can’t do this. I’m being followed.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, man, you’re just high.’ I’m like, ‘No, man. I’m not doing it. I’m going back to L.A.’ The guy that took my place got arrested. 20 years in a federal penitentiary [for] international drug smuggling. That would have been me.” [via Alternative Nation]

Sorum was also asked about not being a part of Guns N’ Roses’ gigantic ‘Not in This Lifetime’ reunion tour. “I was there at the height of everything. And I did it. Sure, I could go out there and play that music, no problem, but I’m very, very grateful that I was there when it was the greatest it was. [Use Your Illusion] was the biggest tour GN’R ever did. We were at the hugest level at that point, did two and a half years on the road. It was great.”

Take a listen to Matt Sorum on 2 Hours With Matt Pinfield in the player below.